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Rock star in action

Friday, May 23, 2008

Breast cancer survivor Sheryl Crow testified this week before a U.S. House committee supporting the Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act. The bill would provide $40 million annually for five years for federal research into environmental factors linked to breast cancer. In addition, she supported a companion bill that would require health insurance to pay for at least 48 hours in the hospital after breast cancer treatment allowing full recovery and putting an end to so-called "drive through mastectomies."

Killing more then 41,000 women annually in the U.S., breast cancer is the most common form of cancer after skin cancer.

Sheryl has been a breast cancer research advocate for a while now, and is clearly aware of the connection between cancer and environmental hazards we are all exposed to. Here are few lines from her testimony:

"Why is this bill so important to me? Because I want to know what causes this disease - for me, for the 2.3 million others who share this diagnosis with me, and especially for all those who are at risk, or putting themselves at risk without even knowing it. Like the vast majority of women diagnosed with breast cancer, I have no known risk factor, including no family history. I have no idea why I got breast cancer, or what I can say to others who want to prevent it. Here's what I do know: we need to put more resources into figuring out what the environment has to do with breast cancer. We need to do that through government funding, because there is little financial incentive for anyone else to do this research.